St. Patrick’s School

Newsletter No. 2014/25

Thursday, 21 August 2014

29 Leahy Street Principal

PO Box 113 Mrs Kathryn Bendall

NHILL VIC 3418

Phone 03 5391 1575

Mobile 0419 929 271

Fax 03 5391 1506

Email principal@spnhill.catholic.edu.au

Web www.spnhill.catholic.edu.au

CALENDAR

AUGUST

Fr 22 Junior Farm Excursion

Fr 29 Excursion @ Nhill Lutheran Church (9:30am)

-Chris Jaensch Performance

SEPTEMBER

Tu 9 Parent/Teacher Conferences

Tu 16 PAC Meeting

Fr 19 Last Day Term 3

Disco

OCTOBER

Mo 6 First Day Term 4

Tu 28 PAC Meeting

NOVEMBER

Tu 25 PAC Annual General Meeting

DECEMBER

Tu 2 PAC Meeting

CLASS TIMES SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

9am Class time OFFICE HOURS

11am Recess Monday Closed

11:30am Class time Tuesday 9am-3:30pm

1:00pm Lunch Wednesday 9am-3:30pm

1:45pm Class time Thursday 9am-3:30pm

3:15pm Dismissal Friday 10am-1pm

ATTACHED

Nutrimetics

BookClub—orders due Wed 27 August

Dear Parents and Friends of St Patrick’s School Community,

We’ve had a fabulous week since our last newsletter. There have

been a huge variety of activities undertaken and it has been

fantastic to see our students making the most of these

opportunities. So here is a rundown -

Book week parade—What an amazing array of book characters we

had at Wednesday morning’s Reading to Connect Book Week

parade. We had a mermaid, mad hatters, Zac Power, a vampire and

many other characters. The photos elsewhere in this newsletter will

attest to the creativity of the students (and their parents) and we

are indeed blessed to have such supportive families in our

community. My thanks to not only the students and their parents,

but also to the staff who joined in the fun and organised this

spectacular. Our prize winners, who each received a $10 Scholastic

voucher (to be used with the next BookClub order), were as follows:

Junior Senior

Best Catwalk Dance Kamsi Anachuna Lance McBride

Most Imaginative Costume Jayda Polkinhorne Charlotte Dickinson

Wizard of Oz party—The junior students celebrated the finale of

the Wizard of Oz story by having an emerald themed party. Mrs

Dickinson had fun providing ‘healthy’ green food and drink for the

students and they certainly enjoyed themselves. There are photos

of this celebration later in the newsletter. Thanks Mrs Dickinson for

organising this celebration.

‘Lost in the Bush’ excursion—Our senior students had a fantastic

day last Wednesday at Duffholme as part of the 150th anniversary

of the ‘Lost in the Bush’ story. Robert Izaacson and Jillian Pearce

were our hosts for the day as we learnt more about the

circumstances and setting of this remarkable story. Our students

saw Robert’s private museum and his recreation of the Duff’s bush

hut. We then walked along the disused railway track collecting

interesting pieces for the sculptures we created later in the day with

Frank from Horsham Art Gallery. Jillian spoke to us about the Duff

memorial and Robert cooked damper which we tried with treacle.

There are photos elsewhere of some of the wonderful artworks that

the students created with Frank, as well as recounts that senior

students have written. Thank-you to Miss Chaston for organising

this excursion and to Robert, Jillian and Frank for educating our

students about this amazing tale.

Northern Zone Conference—Last Thursday and Friday staff

attended a conference in Swan Hill where we gathered with staff

from most of the schools in this part of the Ballarat Diocese. The

theme of the conference was ‘Be Inspirational’ and our facilitator for

many of the sessions, Matt Church, was very inspiring. He lead us

on a journey where we considered what education will look like in

St. Patrick’s Church

Sunday, 24 August — Mass at 9am

This week’s

winner is Kamsi Kamsi AnachunaAnachuna.

Kamsi was caught using our school

rules by displaying responsibility.

the future. We have a lot to consider as we start planning for 2015

and beyond, and implement those things that will provide better

outcomes for our students.

Above and Beyond Awards—This was potentially going to be

difficult as the students have only been at school 3 days since our

last award but they have risen to the challenge so we do have two

award winners this week.

Junior Awardee—The winner this week is a student who has been

super positive and so incredibly engaged in her learning that she is

making huge progress. She has been encouraging and helping

other students and her efforts at skipping have been wonderful to

watch. Congratulations Mia Braybook for being this week’s

winner.

Senior Awardee—In the Senior class this student has been trying

really hard especially in the area of being responsible and

responding positively to setbacks. He has been working hard to

improve his work by accepting and implementing teacher feedback.

Congratulation Lance McBride for your fabulous efforts this week.

CONSOLENCES—Our thoughts and prayers are with the

community of St Mary’s Warracknabeal as they mourn the passing

of one of their students. Our deepest sympathy to the staff,

students and family of Elli.

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2015 ENROLMENTS—We are currently accepting enrolments for

Foundation (Prep) students for 2015. If you know of families who

are considering enrolling their son/daughter at St Patrick’s next year

could you please remind them that we would really appreciate it if

the enrolment form could be returned by the end of Term 3 (19

September).

REMINDERS/NOTICES—

Monday 25 August—Mrs Salt and Mrs Bendall will be attending

the funeral service for Tom McCabe from 12pm on Monday. Mrs

Dickinson and Mrs Rintoule will be at school to work with Mrs

Tracey Bell who will be teaching the students.

The students will be having Physical Education on Monday afternoon

so can you please make sure your children wear appropriate shoes to

school on Monday.

SunSmart Policy—The updated SunSmart policy requires students,

staff and visitors to wear broad brimmed hats from September 1 to

30 April. Please locate your child/ren’s bucket hat/s and make sure

they are clean and ready to be worn from Monday 1 September. If

new hats are required they can be purchased from Cambrelles,

Nhill.

PAC—Our next PAC meeting has been rescheduled to Tuesday 16

September. Members of the school community who would like an

issue raised need to contact a parent representative or the school

so that the issue can be included on the agenda.

Parking at School—A couple of parents have recently had contact

with the local by-laws officer in relation to parking at school pick-up

times.

Please be aware that he is out and about and while he is currently

giving warnings for parking inappropriately he won’t be giving

warnings for long. He is concerned about the safety of our children

after a few near misses in Nhill in recent times.

Nhill Lawn Tennis Club

Open Day!!

All ages welcome to come and enjoy a

morning of tennis games and fun.

Test your serve speed!!

Kids Games Hot Shots

BBQ lunch provided

Where: Nhill Lawn Tennis Club

When: Sunday 28th September

Time: 10am

"O woman, your faith is

great.” Matthew

15: 28

HAPPY HOLIDAY TASHA—We hope you enjoy your retreat and get to see the beach during your four days away. See you next Tuesday.

JUNIOR GOLF Junior Golf will be on again next Friday Au-gust 29th at the Nhill Golf Club commencing at 4.00pm. Everyone welcome.

Nhill International Rules Basketball

AGM & General Meeting

Monday 8th September 2014

7:30pm Nhill Sporting Centre

All Players/ Parents Welcome

A representative from each team must attend

Women’s, Men’s, Secondary & Junior Competition if enough numbers for teams

Junior Farm Excursion—We are praying for the fine weather to continue so that the Junior class can get maximum

benefit from their visit to Ashley and Emma Dickinson’s farm tomorrow. The children will be gathering information so

they can ‘compare and contrast’ farm life to living in the town.

Excursion to Chris Jaensch (Nhill Lutheran Church), Friday 29 August, 9:30am—Nhill Lutheran School have invited

us to this performance. Students will be transported by bus to enjoy this singer/songwriter. Mrs Salt and Miss Chaston

will accompany the students.

Nutrimetics—Attached to this newsletter you will find a Nutrimetrics flyer. Merrill Harding, our local Nutrimetics

consultant, has offered to reward St Patrick’s school $10 for every box set of 5 shower gels that we sell. This offer is

almost ‘too good to be true’ and seemed like an ideal way to fundraise for our school. The flyer is self explanatory but if

you require further details please phone us at school or ring Merrill directly, her details are on the flyer. A sample box

will be on display in the staffroom.

Please note that we require all orders and payment by Friday 5 September at the latest. Thank-you for supporting this

fundraiser.

As always if you have any queries about what is happening at St Patrick’s School please contact us on 5391 1575.

Kathryn Bendall, Principal

Lost in the bush—Lani Elliott

At St Pat's School to Jane Duff Highway Park and Duffholme cabins.

On Wednesday the 13th of August 2014 the seniors, Mrs Salt and Mrs Bendall went from St Pat's school to Jane Duff

Highway Park and Duffholme cabins because we are learning about ‘Lost in the Bush’. We went to a museum at

Duffholme cabins then walked to Jane Duff Highway Park.

When we were on our way there we got lost so it took an hour to get there so I read 1 1/2 star girl books. I read Toxic

talk and half of Shut down. The museum had old and interesting things like old scooters and an old water pump and I

used it. The water pump was working and it was easy to use. After looking at the museum we walked from the museum

to some replicas of some things like ploughs. They were very interesting. On the way to Jane Duff Highway Park (we'll

call it Jane Duff for short) we found rusty train bolts and pins. I found one train bolt and a pin and Tasha gave me a bolt.

When we got to Jane Duff we ate some damper. Some of us seniors ate it plain. Some tried it with treacle. Others had

maple syrup. I ate some damper plain and some with maple syrup. The damper mix was already cooking when we got

there. After the delicious damper we made some art out of things we found in the bush like our rusty train pins and

bolts. James helped me make my work so I called it ours. He found a mini tree and it made a good roof for the mini hut

we made. When we were doing art I found a little stick that made a good slingshot when I put some rainbow bands on it

and I put a rock in it. On the way back to school I read the other half of Shut down and all of Double cross but only just.

My favourite parts were the yummy damper and the awesome art. I hope we go there again soon.

Lost in the Bush recount

On Wednesday 13th August St Patrick's school went on an excursion to Lost in the Bush. It took us an hour to get there. Eventually we got there. The person who owned the place was Robert. He had two lit-tle dogs and the smallest dog kept biting me but they were still cute. Then we got to see the museum that Robert made. It was so cool.

Then he took us for a walk and we went and saw the house that the Duff's lived in. It was old and dirty and gross. Then we went for an-other walk to go make damper. We were also going to have our lunch there. While we were walking we picked up some things that we could use for our art later in the afternoon. Finally we got to the end.

We stood by the Jane Duff memorial statue and a lady told us about the statue. Straight after the lady told us about the statue she told us to grab a chair and head over to where Robert and the fire was, for lunch. Once lunch was finished the damper was ready, I tried the damper with treacle and it was really nice. After the damper was finished we went down to where we were going to make the art. I made cubby which was really cool. Everybody else's art was cool too. After that it was time to go home.

The end— by Lance McBride